Pardew Wants More From The Government!

30 October 2012 12:46

Alan Pardew wants more support from the government and the UK education system to find more talented youngsters.

But will 'throwing money at the problem' do any good? Personally I don't think it would.

It's a mentality thing. Kids sit playing computer games these days, rather than kick a ball "out in the cold".

Another thing is the Jimmy Savile "problem" that frightens parents.

I did a talk-in with former Newcastle goalkeeper John Burridge and he hit the nail on the head: "When I was eight or nine we used to play football in parks. Would you seriously let an eight-year old out these day? They might bump into Michael Jackson!"

Alan Pardew: “There isn’t enough ball time available for young players.

“For years we’ve not had that ball time at the feet of youngsters.

“It is as simple as that. It isn’t rocket science. I still drive around this city and it is football-mad.

“You ask any fan to name four football-mad cities and they would say the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow.

“But there are still not as many kids playing football in the parks. That’s because society has changed. Television is better and they have video games and other technology.

“Homework is also a big factor.

“I still think the kids around the country are being given a lot of crammed work.

“Teachers get long holidays and the kids have to cram their homework in.

“It’s too much. Private school is even worse by the way.

“The kids get far too much to do and they have to cram it in.

“How are they going to play football?

“One of the beauties the Mediterranean and South American players have is the weather.

“It’s not just conditions here, though. People have argued that school pitches have gone and that has been costly through government decisions for the development of players.

“But we’ve still got plenty of park land.

“At my time in school whenever you had a break, you had an area to play football.

“You ate your dinner in four seconds flat so you could go out and play football and you played football for an hour.

“Then after school you played football again.

“Unfortunately that doesn’t happen as much.

“Academies don’t ruin footballers, that isn’t true.

“If you’re a natural street footballer then the Academy will only enhance you.

“You go out and get better and work on technique to become better at the game.”